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The European project Coroma, led by the Basque technological centre IK4-IDEKO, analyses the progress made one year after its launch

With a budget of 7 million euros, the project develops robotic applications capable of interacting with people in safe environments

To
boost its competitiveness, the industrial sector faces the challenge of
integrating the advances of digital technologies in production plants. In this
scenario, smart robotics, a branch of engineering that makes it possible to
perform complex tasks by applying industry 4.0 concepts, plays a relevant role.

The main objective of the European project COROMA
(Cognitively
Enhanced Robot for Flexible Manufacturing of Metal and Composite Parts) , launched a year ago and coordinated by the Basque technological
centre IK4-IDEKO , is to develop of
a new smart robotic system capable of executing multiple manufacturing
processes, and to construct parts for sectors of high value-added sectors such
as aeronautics, shipbuilding or power generation.

To
analyse the progress of the project, launched in October 2016, the consortium
partners held a meeting at the Elgoibar technology centre and at the facilities
of the machine tool manufacturer SORALUCE, a world leader in milling and boring
technology, who are also involved in the initiative.

The
leaders of the different work groups and the Independent Advisory Board overseeing the project met last week to discuss the overall approach to the
initiative and the progress made so far. The most suitable manner to continue
in the coming years to ensure both the transfer of the results to industry and
the dissemination to the European community was also discussed.

COROMA's
Independent Advisory Board is made up of leading professionals in the field
of robotics, research, education, industrial manufacturing and security, and
strives to steer the work being carried out and to guarantee industrial
exploitation of the results of such work.

"One
of the key aspects pursued by the COROMA partners is the exploitation of the
obtained results. Periodic monitoring together with the Independent Advisory
Council is an optimal way to successfully align work towards that goal"
said Javier Hernández, coordinator of the initiative.

In
addition to the meetings with the Council, the project partners held a
technical workshop to advance in the integration of the different modules that
form part of the robotic system with a central controller.

"The
objective of the workshop was to advance the development of the general
supervision structure to secure a smooth interaction of different COROMA
modules in one single final integral system". The expert continued to explain:
"The companies involved in the project have the mission of building
flexible prototypes that can carry out different tasks, and to achieve this the
robots must be designed in a modular way".

COROMA
has the mission to develop a smart singular robotic system to perform numerous
manufacturing tasks that is adaptable to production requirements. Specifically,
the new system will carry out tasks such as drilling, contouring, deburring,
polishing, sanding, non-destructive inspections and can even be used as a
moving support for the manufactured parts themselves.

The
meetings, held between 9 and 11 October, helped to pool all progress made in
each project module. Hence, checks were carried out through tests with laser
tracker technologies for the characterisation of the robot, and besides the
solutions for detection of people in work environments and for avoiding
human-robot collisions were tested.

Furthermore,
the results of the machining tests, on both aluminium parts and composite
materials, as well as the digitization work and integration of tasks of
different modules in one single robotic system were analysed and grouped
together.

In
order to address the scientific and informative dimension of the project,
COROMA officials will attend next year's conference on production systems of
the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP), a leading body in
research applied to manufacturing, that will be held in Stockholm in May. At
that meeting, researchers from IK4-IDEKO and 3 other research centres will
present several papers focusing on the field of robotics applied to
manufacturing.

With
a budget of more than 7 million euros, of which 6 have been funded by the
European Commission through the Factories of the Future program to boost
research and innovation, the COROMA project has a total of 16 participants
consisting of companies, research centres and universities from seven different
countries.

The
initiative, which will conclude in 2019, involves the companies Aciturri, ENSA
and Beneteau, who will implement the industrial exploitation demonstrators in
the aeronautical, energy and shipbuilding sectors.

The
Basque Technological Centre IK4-IDEKO has a long-standing experience of 30
years in research, development and innovation of new technologies applied to
manufacturing and industrial production.

Set
up to respond to highly technological challenges from the Mondragon Corporation
machine tool companies, today it has more than 100 researchers and a portfolio
of more than 50 customers a year.

Its
R&D&I is aimed at offering innovative solutions to improve
competitiveness of the business fabric, and is structured in 4 research units:
Dynamics and Control, Manufacturing Processes, ICT and Automation and Design
and Precision Engineering.